11.02.08

Texas case distortions. Why can’t scientists write their own Explore Evolution?

Posted in Evolution at 5:41 pm by nemo

Prepare for an ugly battle in Texas
by PZ Myers, Pharyngula
Reposted from: Dawkins site

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/10/prepare_for_an_ugly_battle_in.php

No doubt it will be an ugly battle, but a good part of the problem lies on the science side. I almost agree with Evo-News as to the misrepresentations of their position on the issues. These articles crying wolf and denouncing the three ID culprits on the board are misleading.
The Texas Freedom Network, an NCSE clone, is not very helpful. The science community is in massive denial, claiming that Texas science is threatened if ‘evolution is watered down’. I don’t trust anyone here, but the plain fact of the matter is that the Discovery Institute is not proposing either the teaching of creationism, or of ID, as they have said dozens of times. And the textbook being denounced (I have not read it, but I have studied the website, and read avowals of the lack of ID promo in it), Explore Evolution, contains no ID or creationist promotion, but a series of sober critiques of Neo-Darwinism. On those grounds the hysterical hate-mongering of Myers et al. is a disservice to a complex cultural issue.
The flaws of Neo-Darwinism are well-known in many circles, but they are not properly known to the general public. Noone should be required to submit to Neo-Darwinian deceptions in the education system.
The debate has already decayed into the confusion over ‘evolution’, when the real issue is the inadequacy of the theory of natural selection. It is not scientific to deceive the public here as to the weaknesses of Darwinian theory, so what’s the problem?
The science contingent can’t be stupid. They must know the real issue, but are brazenly suppressing the weaknesses in Darwinism. Since, as far as we know, noone is trying to inject creationism/ID into the curriculum, I think the science community is guilty of the usual complacent propaganda, on the assumption that once again they can get away with it, after a few scare stories about bad science and losing the technological edge. Kids raised in Neo-Darwinism tend to lose the sense of critical thought about evolution that should characterize real science. So the scare tactics are overblown. Scientists have the legal rulings in their favor(no religion in the classroom), Dover etc, so what more do they want: the dogmas of Neo-Darwinian and their own anti-religious agenda, greatly eased with the natural selection metaphysics. But a text like Explore Evolution is rigorously clean on that issue, and doesn’t violate Dover.
It could be better, and the question is, why can’t scientists write their own Explore Evolution, to teach critical thinking on evolution?

The Texas Board of Education has named the six people who will be on a committee to review science curriculum standards. Texas, you’ve got trouble. The people are:

David Hillis, professor of integrative biology and director of the Center of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics at the University of Texas at Austin;

Ronald K. Wetherington, professor of anthropology at Southern Methodist University and director of the Center for Teaching Excellence;

Gerald Skoog, professor and dean emeritus of the College of Education at Texas Tech and co-director of the Center for Integration of Science Education and Research;

Stephen Meyer, vice-frakkin’-president of the odious Discovery Institute in Washington state;

Ralph Seelke, a pro-ID creationist and biologist from Wisconsin;

Charles Garner, a chemist from Baylor who is also a pro-ID creationist.

Note that Meyer and Seelke are co-authors of that ghastly new ID textbook, Explore Evolution, and would no doubt love to tweak the curriculum to make their book marketable in Texas. Conflict of interest? Nah.
[http://www.exploreevolution.com/, the link to the book site, nemo]
So, three good guys and three ignorant ideologues, with the overall head of the board of education being Don McLeroy, the creationist dentist. It’s going to get ugly.

Also see:
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/10/27/texas-falling-over-the-cliff-of-doom/ (thanks to Joey)

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